In pathetic contrast to Kennedy’s historic speech and the national movement it generated a half-century ago, on February 1, 2010, America heard only platitudes and excuses from Barack Obama, clearly a lesser man, as he announced his decision to cancel America’s planned return to the moon later in this decade.

Last Wednesday marked the fiftieth anniversary of a monumental crossroads in America’s history; a moment in which the nation, in the face of a seemingly invincible enemy, collected its resolve to remain a world leader that would be subservient to no one. The “mainstream” media, so saturated in its anti-American mindset, felt little compulsion to even mention the anniversary of this event. A resolution no less significant to the course of the nation than was the Monroe Doctrine in the early nineteenth century, apparently matters little to the liberal mouthpieces who would far prefer to demagogue imagined Republican attacks against Medicare.

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, addressing a joint session of Congress, issued this stunning challenge: “I believe that this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long range exploration of space; and none would be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

Amidst the brief and deceptive calm that ensued between American involvement in Korea and Vietnam, it might have seemed reasonable to fixate on the nation’s domestic concerns. But Kennedy was well aware of the burgeoning threat of an aggressive Soviet Union obsessed with world conquest and the forcible conversion of humanity to its Marxist ideology. In the tumultuous month preceding his address to the Congress, America had been subjected to the double humiliation of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the dramatic news that the Soviets had successfully sent a human passenger into space and recovered him safely after a complete orbit of the earth.

America desperately needed this boost of both its technological capability and its world standing. Believing in the greatness of these United States, Kennedy gambled that public commitment to such an undertaking would bring the talents and resources of the entire nation into service of his goal, and having done so, could indeed succeed in making it reality. The effort would ultimately be a defining battle in the Cold War, with no less than the very survival of America at stake.

Eight years and two months later, standing on the moon’s surface and speaking to then President Richard Nixon via Oval Office telephone, Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong talked of the mission’s significance to “men of peace of all nations, and with interest and curiosity, and with a vision for the future.” Not mentioned by Armstrong was that this event spelled the beginning of the end of Soviet technological dominance on the world stage. And while it took nearly another two decades, and the combined knock out punch of President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to bring the Soviets down for the count, that day in July of 1969 proved America had risen to Kennedy’s challenge and would not accept technological conquest.

But even then, as the country rejoiced in perhaps its finest moment, ‘60’s radicals were working hard as foot soldiers for the Soviet propaganda machine, their goal being to undermine the accomplishment in the eyes of the American people and the world. Citing the $24 billion cost of the moon mission, they incessantly denigrated it as an affront to their utopian visions of American socialism, knowing full well that their actions would do the utmost to salvage the Soviet reputation after its efforts to beat the United States to the lunar surface had ended in catastrophe.

This treachery has since been thoroughly adopted by the modern Democrat Party, into which those leftists eventually migrated. That such detestable betrayal of this nation has only become more flagrant was made plain by the manner in which prominent members of the American left, both in the media and on Capitol Hill, derided and demeaned the landing of President George W. Bush on the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, in the midst of the War on Terror.

Rather than trumpet the event as a bold display of American courage and resolve, which would certainly have boosted this nation’s morale while instilling fear into its enemies, those on the left did their utmost to undermine and trivialize it, thus minimizing its positive impact on this nation as well as any damage to the morale of Islamists with whom America was waging war.

Yet with the ascension of such people to the highest levels of government, the situation has further deteriorated still. In pathetic contrast to Kennedy’s historic speech and the national movement it generated a half-century ago, on February 1, 2010, America heard only platitudes and excuses from Barack Obama, clearly a lesser man, as he announced his decision to cancel America’s planned return to the moon later in this decade. Claiming that the current program was “over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation” (as if cost, schedule, or innovation were ever precepts of the Democrat/statist agenda) he suggested that some other celestial target, such as an asteroid, might represent a more worthwhile venture.

Worse than being merely a bad joke, he merely “kicked the can down the road” regarding any realistic national undertaking with quantifiable results, knowing full well that few would ever remember his words and none would expect any follow through. Thus he was left free to thoroughly pervert and politicize NASA and exploit it as just another bureaucratic monstrosity of such irrelevance that it could subsequently be redirected towards the absurd and pathetic end of “Muslim outreach.”

Ultimately however, Obama could never have succeeded in perpetrating this travesty on his own. Sadly, he is but a reflection of America’s orchestrated decline. It is almost inconceivable that a nation which rose to the occasion and accomplished the impossible a half-century ago could so rapidly be reduced to what it is today, a lesser people, with lower expectations for their future. Otherwise, they would never have so disgraced themselves and their heritage by elevating such a man to the nation’s highest office based on his excess of absurd promises and empty platitudes.

Christopher G. Adamo is a resident of southeastern Wyoming and has been involved in state and local politics for many years. He writes for several prominent conservative websites, as has written for regional and national magazines. His contact information and article archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com, and he can be followed on Twitter @CGAdamo.